Professors and Economy

Richard Zhang

After students cope with their financial hardships, they are looking forward to a great year with expanding their knowledge, gaining the freshmen 15, and going to their first frat party. However, their eagerness came to an end when the professors walked out on them. The Associate Press reports Oakland University, located in Michigan, closed indefinitely due to the freezing of the university professors’ salaries. Unless the school officials come to an agreement with the professors’ union, 18,000 students will be without an education that they paid for. The strike comes after a recent $100,000 raise of the university president. All talks for a new contract with the professors broke down, and 450 faculty members walked out.

(image from Associated Press)


As the cost of attending a university continues to rise in this sluggish economy, students and teachers are at their limits of tolerance. They understand that the economy is very weak and everyone has to make sacrifices. But, there is only so much they can take. School officials must realize that there is always a limit to how much they can cut. Obviously, freezing professors’ salary isn’t the way to go, especially after they raised the president’s salary. In this economy, the goal is to do anything to survive. In order to survive, the institution must become one, rather than bickering amongst themselves and fail. The president and the school board is at fault on this issue. the school board should have made freezing professors' salary a last resort. The school board should apologize and resume school as soon as possible so that the students can do what they paid for.

The SAT: Keep it or Leave it?

According to the College Board, in 2009 more than 1.5 million students took the SAT. At this point in time, the SAT has been recognized as a standardized test that was designed to tell how well a student is prepared for college. With this is mind it has been a major factor in college admissions. However, Is this test really a true representation of intelligence and preparedness for higher education?

College students have already past the point in their life where all they thought about was the dreaded SAT. Now there is countless arguments that the system in place is just not fair. To prepare for this test, students need countless hours of studying. Many seek out outside help, such as tutoring or extended classes that help them prepare for the test. Yet, what if a family can not afford extra help? A student can score lower on the test because he did not have the same resources available to him like others. Principal Shawn Toler agrees when he notes that the test is unfair for students, such as inner city minorities, who simply cannot afford test preparation. The test is also noted to be biased against students who's first language might not be english. Even if there was no chance of the system being unfair, it is difficult to understand how just one test can decide success in higher education.

Colleges and Universities are responding to this debate. For example, many schools have not even considered including the writing section of the SAT in their admissions requirements. Also, every year there continue to be more and more schools that do not even require standardized testing to admit students. One website, www.fairtest.org, has kept a running list of colleges and universities that are on their side. The schools listed do not used standardized tests as a means of admission into their Bachelor Degree programs. Only time will tell if the SAT can keep its status that it has held since its inception.

Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Professional degree?

Shawn Roberts

The majority of informed people in the world know that with a better degree comes a better salary. However, is it really worth putting in the years of work or pay the monumental costs of obtaining the more prestigious degrees? To find out there has to be some number crunching. For starters the average yearly earnings of a bachelor’s, master’s, and professional’s degree are $43,000, $53,000, and $70,000 respectively. The difference in these salaries is considerable but so is the amount that it costs to obtain them.

The average cost of a four year institution is $15,665. The average cost of graduate school to get a master’s degree is $14,825 while the average cost of a professional program is $20,903. This means that the cost of a Bachelor’s degree is $62,660, $92,310 for a master’s, and a staggering $146,272 for a professional degree. The next thing we can now calculate is that it takes almost one and a half years to pay off a bachelor’s degree, almost two years to pay off a master’s, and a little over two to pay off the funds for a professional degree. The high salary of a professional degree then quickly surpasses that of the other two. Within 18 years after graduating from high school the net profit of a person with a professional degree is greater than that of a person with a bachelor’s degree and a person with a master’s degree. Therefore and in conclusion, if a person plans on working past the age of 36 it is in their best interest to spend the extra time and money to obtain a professional degree.

http://www.salary.com/
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/

To Sleep...or Not to Sleep? That is the Question!

Hunter Hammond


According to sources at Associated Content, an ever growing number of people throughout America LOVE sleep! Specifically, the article focuses on college students and their love of sleep; however, the article also addresses students incapability to sleep. Late night parties, all night study sessions, and late night meals are all factors which compromise students ability to get a good night sleep.

Furthermore, studies have shown that these college students perform worse and pay attention less than students who get a full night of sleep. USA Today reported on several case studies ranging from St. Lawrence University in New York to Stanford in California that found that "all-nighters" and atypical sleeping patterns keep students awake at night. This can have a negative impact on many students' daily lives.

Science Daily reported that a large percentage of undergraduate and graduate students are adversely affected by unfavorable sleeping patterns; however, the reasons behind harmful sleep patterns are often self imposed. Students can control if, and when, they sleep! This assumed truth introduces the question: To sleep...or not to sleep?



It is true that a lack of sleep has an adverse effect on the body and the mind of most people, specifically college students; however, do the benefits of not sleeping outweigh the consequences? For example, if something highly memorable happened on a particular night, then many students would choose the memory over the negative consequences. By not sleeping the student might not perform well the next day; however, he (or she) will have an interesting story to tell.

Furthermore, it can be argued that not sleeping is all part of the experience. All nighters, parties, time for friends, late night dinners, and so on are all components of a college experience. Even though studies may find that students LOVE sleep and that sleep is good for your health, many students will choose to opt out of those benefits in an attempt to have a fun and enriched experience while at college.

The Great Transition

Brandon Carter

Getting ready to leave for college is not one of the easiest things to do. Can colleges do something to help? The transition from home life to college life can be quite difficult. One of the hardest parts of the transition is the separation from friends and family. Leaving behind people you have grown up with and shared so much with is not something a lot of people want to do. As stated by Dr. Jennifer Crissman Ishler, an assistant professor of counselor education at Pennsylvania State University, "Part of the adjustment process for first-year students involves grieving the loss of precollege friendships as they have known.” When finally leaving for college, saying goodbye becomes that much more difficult for a few. Some may not find it as hard to leave because they attend a college that is near their home town, while others find it much more difficult because they live several hours away. One could say that visiting friends on the weekends or every few weekends is a remedy to the problem and that there is no real reason to feel stressed about leaving friends behind. The truth of the mater is just knowing that it might be a few months before you see them again makes it harder to deal with.

In addition to affecting how students feel the difficulty of trying to maintain precollege friendships may affect student’s grades and future friendships. According to Dr. Crissman Ishler - many students who felt separation anxiety spent a lot of time and energy trying to maintain ties with old buddies -- which in turn prevented them from investing in new friendships at college. Dr. Crissman Ishler believes it is important for colleges to get involved in the transition process. With activities such as orientation and freshman seminars, colleges are starting to get involved in the process of students transition.

economics and college

Richard Zhang

As times gets tough, colleges turn to sponsors? According to NYTimes, one public college in California is turning to sponsors due to budget cuts. Even though, the college has cut many classes in its curriculum and raised its tuition, there is still a significant budget gap. US News reports that there is another reason that colleges are feeling overwhelmed. More and more students are applying for college and there are simply not enough seats for them in this economy. As more and more students are seeking higher educations, there isn’t enough financial aid to go around. Why are there such a high number of students searching for financial aid? Due to the recession, many college saving accounts has lost a good portion. Furthermore, colleges have raised their tuition to deal with the budget and endowment cuts. This is affecting under privileged students, especially students who come from financially difficult background. Yet, these students are hit the hardest in this economy. These students depend heavily on the scholarships, grants, and loans. With these financial options cut, these students are feeling the full blunt of this economic recession. Even students with wealthier background are feeling the pinch. Many applied to state schools in order to make college more affordable. Most families cannot afford to keep their children in college for five years. Even so, a lot of high school graduates are going to continue their education because they cannot find any work after high school. As the economy continue to slum, college students are adapting to a more career concentrated college years.

The Distribution Credit System

David Diaz

According to “The State of General Education” by Mark Bauerlein, universities are using a system of distribution credits to give students a wide area of subjects to study. This poses a problem in that students are taking courses that they don’t need to get their specialized college degree. According to Baurelein students view these required courses as, “a bunch of heterogeneous hoops to pass through.” Also, the distribution system creates the possibility that students can acquire an education of random courses that don’t relate to one another at all versus a strong set of courses in which each builds on the others. So why is it that colleges have adapted a system of distribution credits over the traditional core curriculum system which entails fewer classes with a broader focus?

Bauerlein answers this question by saying that “One, students like having more choice. Two, faculty either don’t believe in, or are scared to declare, what every graduate should have read, studied, and remembered. For all too many of them, the worst trait is “prescriptive.” Although, there is a lot of truth to that statement, I have an alternate theory. Money is the motivating factor behind the distribution system. First, as Baurelein stated, the distribution system provides more classes which draws in more students, which brings in more money. Second, the distribution system complicates the required classes for a degree. This means that students who want to take the minimum amount of courses to get a degree have to stay longer and complete all or their distribution credits. On the other hand, students who attend college for the sake of learning will be interested in many of the extra classes offered and will likely stay to complete as many as possible. Consequently, extra classes means a harder schedule with a lower chance of passing or an easier schedule and more time spent in college. All of the above situations have one thing in common, students spending more time in college meaning that they pay more tuition and the institute makes more money.

In conclusion, Bauerlein makes an interesting point about the curriculum of colleges becoming a system of distribution credits with very little core curriculum. He acknowledges that this system has a potential for disaster, but has been adapted for two reasons. However, the underlying reason behind those two reasons is simply that this system can rake in more money to universities.